By DPA,
Hamburg : High-spending Real Madrid are planning to start the new season as leaders of the Spanish Liga.
After spending a record-breaking 256 million euros (366.20 million dollars) this summer on Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema et al, Real are under massive pressure to lead the pack right from the starting pistol.
Their first opponents Saturday will be Deportivo Coruna, an impoverished outfit who have spent less than five per cent of Real’s outlay on new signings.
“We know that it is going to be a difficult game,” said Deportivo coach Miguel Angel Lotina Wednesday.
“They have bought excellent players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka. Even so, I am confident that we can create a few problems for them.”
The guest of honour in Real’s Estadio Bernabeu will be sprinter Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world, who is a keen “madridista” fan.
Real are still trying to offload unwanted players in order to make room for their new signings. On Thursday they will probably complete the sale to Inter Milan of midfielder Wesley Sneijder, the 11th player to leave the Bernabeu this summer.
Later Saturday Zaragoza will be at home to Tenerife, in a clash between two teams promoted back to La Liga in June.
Zaragoza were surprisingly relegated from the top flight in 2008 and are keen to make a better start this time.
“Two years ago we made a poor start to the season,” said Zaragoza striker Ewerton on Wednesday, “and look what happened to us in the end…This time we must start with confidence and security.”
The big game Sunday sees Valencia at home to Sevilla.
Valencia, who finished sixth last season, remain in financial and institutional chaos. However, they have managed to hold on to star strikers David Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata, though they have hardly made any signings at all.
Sevilla, for their part, have spent heavily on Alvaro Negredo, Didier Zokora and Sergio Sanchez and are aiming to do even better than last season, when they finished third.
Also Sunday, Atletico Madrid – who cruised into the Champions League against Panathinaikos on Tuesday – will start away to Malaga, whilst Villarreal are away to Osasuna.
Sunday’s other games are as follows: Racing Santander-Getafe, Almeria-Valladolid, Mallorca-Xerex and Athletic Bilbao-Espanyol.
The first round of matches will not finish until Monday, because Barcelona’s home game against Sporting Gijon has been put back due to their participation in Friday’s European Supercup showpiece against Shakhtar Donetsk in Monte Carlo.
Barca will again be without injury victims Andres Iniesta, Rafa Marquez and Gabriel Milito.
Many Barca fans are worried about the club’s lack of signings. So far, only Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Maxwell have arrived, both from Inter Milan.
Club president Joan Laporta hopes to clinch the signing of Shakhtar defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy in Monte Carlo, in order to finally placate coach Josep Guardiola, who has been asking for the Ukrainian defender all summer.